1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates primarily to a camera control system ideally used for a monitoring camera, a video conference system, or the like, for exchanging of information via, for example, a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a monitoring system which employs a few video cameras where analog video signals entered through the video cameras are output to a plurality of monitors of a control system, has been used as a remote monitoring system in a relatively small building.
For such a monitoring system, a camera control system in which a plurality of cameras are connected to a local area network (LAN) or an existing digital network including ISDN or other public digital circuits has been proposed.
A camera control system has also been proposed in which cameras can be controlled via a network. In this system, a personal computer, a workstation, or other type of computer is used as the terminal for controlling the cameras so as to implement video display and camera control by a graphical user interface (GUI).
The foregoing proposed system provides an advantage in that even a person not familiar with computers can easily handle the system. In particular, the ease of operation has been improved by displaying camera images on a monitor, and by the camera control panel outputting the camera images at the same time.
In the conventional systems, however, the formats of control signals or the like differ according to the type (or specifications) of the cameras. For this reason, the number of types of cameras that can be connected for control has been restricted or it has been necessary for users to be aware of the type of cameras when carrying out camera control.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made with a view toward solving the problems described above, and it is an object thereof to provide a system which permits a variety of types of cameras to be connected thereto, and makes it possible to control a plurality of cameras by using standardized camera control commands to enable a user to control a plurality of cameras without worrying about the difference in type of cameras connected thereto. Another object is to provide a system capable of supplying the information on the cameras connected to a user end.
To these ends, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer terminal for controlling a video camera in accordance with a control signal received via a network, the computer terminal being equipped with: storing means for storing the information on a video camera connected to the computer terminal; a plurality of modules which convert the control signals into control signals which differ in format from each other; and selecting means for selecting a module among the plurality of modules according to the information on the video camera stored by the storing means to carry out conversion to the control signal matched to the video camera so as to enable the control of the video camera.
In a preferred form of the present invention, the computer terminal further includes outputting means for supplying the information of the video camera that has been determined by determining means to a client.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method of a computer terminal for controlling a video camera in accordance with a control signal received via a network, the control method including the steps of: storing the information of a video camera connected to the computer terminal; a plurality of modules which convert the control signals into control signals which differ in format from each other; and selecting a module matched to the video camera among a plurality of modules, which module converts the received control signals to the control signals differing from each other in format to enable the control of the video camera, according to the information on the video camera stored by the storing means.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method of a camera control system for enabling the control of a video camera connected to a computer terminal by supplying a control signal via a network, the control method including the steps of: outputting the request for information of the video camera to a plurality of computer terminals by broadcast; and receiving the information of the video camera from the computer terminals.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage medium which stores a program for implementing the processing of a camera control system controlling the video cameras connected to a plurality of computer terminals in accordance with a control signal supplied via a network, the storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to carry out the processing of: outputting a request for information regarding the video cameras by broadcast to the plurality of computer terminals; clocking the time from the moment the request for the information regarding the video camera was issued in the outputting step; and receiving the information regarding the video camera from the computer terminals until it is indicated in the clocking step that a predetermined time has elapsed.